Latinos’ Job Death Rate is Highest

The AFL-CIO's latest report on American workers' health and safety finds that Latino workers continue to be at increased risk of job deaths and accounted for 748 deaths in 2012, the year for which the report is based. Other findings in the report regarding Latinos are:

_ The death rate for Latino workers on the job in 2012 was 3.7 per 100,000 workers, compared to a job death rate of 3.4 per 100,000 overall workers.

_ Though high, the death rate is lower than in 2001, when fatalities were six deaths per 100,000.

_ States with the highest rate of Latino worker deaths were Texas, 201, California, 137 and Florida, 54. Texas' and Florida's Latino worker deaths had increased from 2011.

_ The highest number of Latino worker deaths occurred in the construction industry, 220, followed by transportation and warehousing, 92. The leading causes of death for Latinos was transportation incidents, 274, falls, 161, contact with equipment, 134 and violence, 82.

_ There were 824 deaths among immigrant workers in 2012, down from 843 in 2011. Of the foreign-born worker deaths, 59 percent were Latino.